3of 3UC Berkeley’s women’s beach volleyball facilities are due for major to meet federal Title IX guidelines. The softball field will also be renovated as part of a $30 million program.Photo: Matier & Ross / Courtesy KLC Fotos / Cal Athletics

Despite ongoing budget cuts and belt tightening at UC Berkeley, Chancellor Carol Christ just announced plans for a $30 million upgrade to the women’s beach volleyball and softball facilities.

“I expect your reaction to this number may be similar to my own: one of concern and dismay,” Christ wrote Monday in a school-wide email.

Christ acknowledged that the $30 million price tag for upgrading the women’s softball field at Strawberry Canyon and expanding the sand volleyball courts at the Clark Kerr Campus was “extraordinarily high,” but said the university had no choice under federal Title IX guidelines.

“Simply put, we have a history of insufficient investment in the facilities that support some of our women’s sports programs,” Christ wrote.

The only alternative, according to the chancellor, would be to cut the women’s softball and beach volleyball programs — “a step I will not take, for it stands in dramatic opposition to our values and would likely set the stage for costly litigation.”

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The new sports spending plan comes as the school continues to struggle to pay off $438 million in outstanding debt from the renovation of Memorial Stadium and construction of a new training facility, and soon after the university spent $18 million in donor money to build a new aquatic center.

UC Berkeley, meanwhile, is still grappling with a sports budget deficit that peaked near $22 million a couple of years ago and totaled $19.5 million for the school year that just ended. It is also scrambling to build desperately needed student housing using private money.

Campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said, “You got to do what you got to do,” and that the law is clear that men and women get “equitable facilities” — and ones not based on a sport’s “popularity or attendance.”

Specifically, the plans call for relocating and doubling the number of beach volleyball courts at the Clark Kerr Campus to four, plus adding seating, lights, restrooms and a scoreboard. Beach volleyball is not a ticketed event, and currently there is no fixed seating.

Cal’s Levine-Fricke Field, at the base of Strawberry Canyon, will get a full makeover as part of the university’s $30 million investment in women’s sports.

Photo: Matier & Ross / Courtesy Cal Athletics

The softball field will be reoriented and enlarged to meet NCAA tournament requirements, plus get expanded seating, locker rooms, restrooms, field lights, an elevated press box and more. The team averaged 423 fans per game this past spring, and there is no word yet on how many the new stands will hold.

Officials attribute part of the high construction costs to the seismic requirements necessary at the campus, which sits on the Hayward Fault.

There may be a silver lining, says UC athletics spokesman Herb Benenson, in that the upgrades will make the school eligible to host certain NCCA tournaments — games generally televised on the Pac-12 sports channel.

Christ said the funding for the volleyball and softball upgrades will come from “undesignated bequests” — donations that were given to UC Berkeley with no strings attached.

No state or student tuition money will be used, she said.

Christ has pledged to eliminate the sports operating deficit within two years without cutting or eliminating any of the programs.

Then again, you can bet that having bigger and better facilities to maintain won’t make the task any easier.

Rising up: It’s looking more and more like the Year of the Woman in San Francisco.

The latest addition to the female power-holders at City Hall is Vallie Brown, who was just picked by her old boss, London Breed to fill out the new mayor’s term on the Board of Supervisors.

Newly appointed District 5 Supervisor Vallie Brown, right, is introduced by San Francisco Mayor London Breed during Brown's swearing-in ceremony at the Hayes Valley Playground on Monday.

Photo: Stephen Lam / Special to The Chronicle

The announcement came less than a week after Breed herself was sworn in to become the first female to occupy Room 200 since Dianne Feinstein, and the recent election of Supervisor Malia Cohen to succeed Breed as board president.

Add in Naomi Kelly as city administrator, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy and Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu and you have quite the female administrative lineup.

Women also now hold seven of the 11 board seats and half of the city’s 54 department head posts — including some of the most important departments: Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, Health Department Director Barbara Garcia, Port Director Elaine Forbes, Human Resources Director Micki Callahan and Health Service System Systems Executive Director Abbie Yant.

Women also occupied almost half, or 49 percent, of all commission and board seats in San Francisco in 2017 — right on par with the city’s female population, according to statistics compiled by the Department on the Status of Women.

In contrast, a City Hall directory from February 1987 — near the end of Feinstein’s 10 years as mayor — show there were just nine female department heads then, albeit in significant roles. Among them were City Attorney Louise Renne, Treasurer Mary Callahan, Adult Probation Chief Arlene Sauser, acting Social Services General Manager Rose Randolph and Recreation and Park General Manager Mary Burns.

Five of the 11 Board of Supervisor seats were held by women, including then-board President Nancy Walker.

“There has been real progress, and not just in government,” said former City Attorney Renne, now in private law practice.

As for whether they’ve made a difference, Renne says they still have a ways to go, especially at the national level where “women still don’t have the power to make the changes they should.”

And like it or not, women in office are still judged differently than their male counterparts.

As one City Hall veteran pointed out, “Gavin Newsom wore the same suit every day, and just changed his shirt and tie. Mayor Ed Lee had three suits — and one didn’t fit. But with Breed, people ask why did she pick that color outfit for the inaugural and where did she get the shoes?”

Incidentally, while the participation of women three decades ago is no match for today, it was impressive for its time.

During a royal visit to San Francisco in 1983, England’s Prince Philip was struck even back then by the number of women here holding office.

“Aren’t there any male officials?” the prince famously asked. “This is a nanny city.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross

Whether writing about politics or personalities, Phil Matier and Andy Ross have informed and entertained readers for more than two decades about the always fascinating Bay Area and beyond. Their blend of scoops, insights and investigative reporting can be found every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.